Twenty-eight Puerto Rican musicians were awarded scholarships at the closing ceremony of Berklee in Puerto Rico, a weeklong workshop held at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Carolina, in conjunction with the Puerto Rico Heineken JazzFest.

Four students received full tuition awards to Berklee’s Five-Week Summer Performance Program; 16 students received partial scholarships for full-time study at Berklee in Boston; 5 students won Berkleemusic.com free online courses; and 3 students won one semester of study at Conservatorio de Belles Artes del Caribe in San Juan. 179 students, ranging in age from 12 to 34, participated in this year’s workshops. Over $3 million in tuition assistance has been awarded in the 15 years of the Berklee in Puerto Rico program. More than 100 of these recipients have gone on to attend Berklee, including Miguel Zenón.

A group of the program’s top students played for thousands of people at the Puerto Rico Heineken JazzFest, at the Tito Puente Amphitheater, in San Juan, on the final day of the festival. Following the performance, Berklee presented an honorary doctor of music degree to percussionist, composer, and bandleader Giovanni Hidalgo. A native of Puerto Rico, Hidalgo is considered one of the best conga players of his generation, and possibly the fastest. A former member of Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nation Orchestra, he has performed or recorded with Tito Puente, Paul Simon, and Art Blakey, among others. Hidalgo taught in Berklee’s percussion department from 1992-1996.

Berklee in Puerto Rico is made possible by generous support from Berklee alumnus and trustee Luis Alvarez ’83, vice president of Mendez & Company, Inc., and executive producer of the Puerto Rico Heineken JazzFest. In addition to helping coordinate the program, Alvarez and his corporation will donate $20,000 for the Mendez & Company Puerto Rico Heineken JazzFest Scholarship to be awarded at the end of the Berklee in Puerto Rico program. In the 15 years that the program has run, Mendez & Company has awarded over $150,000. Additional Berklee in Puerto Rico sponsors include Fundación Banco Popular de Puerto Rico (main sponsor); Triple-S; Fiddler González & Rodríguez; and Carrión, Laffitte & Casellas.